RockCAM is an add-in for Siemens NX that programs 3-axis CNC parts straight from the solid. Load a part, press one button, and it works out the datum, the setup, the stock, the operation order, the tools and the toolpaths — then hands the operations back inside NX for you to review, adjust or accept.
Why it exists
Most machine shops don’t have a programming problem. They have a volume problem.
The parts are rarely difficult: non-standard automation parts, fixtures and jigs, plates, brackets, small details. But every one of them is different, and every one of them restarts the same routine — choose a datum, decide a setup, pick tools, build the operations one at a time, check for gouges, tidy the order.
None of that is engineering. It’s repetition with a cost. It consumes the hours of the most experienced person in the shop, it scales one-for-one with their day, and it lands hardest exactly when the work arrives all at once.
RockCAM takes that routine off the table. It doesn’t replace a programmer — the part still needs judgement. It removes the portion of the job that is identical every single time, so the person doing it spends their attention on the part that isn’t.
What it does
Reads the part, not a template. No template to configure first, no datum to pick, no geometry to select. RockCAM identifies the machining features itself and decides a workable operation order, setup and fixturing approach — vice-type setups, or clamp plates for larger work.
Chooses tools from your library. It selects from the cutters you actually have, balancing tool variety against machining efficiency, so you aren’t stopping to load tools you don’t need.
Generates and optimises the toolpaths, checks for gouges on the features where it matters, and merges operations where merging makes sense.
Stops at NX operations. The output is ordinary NX operations, not a locked file. You can edit them, swap strategies, apply your own templates and parameter tables, or combine RockCAM output with other add-ins. Nothing here takes the checking away from you.
Runs in batch. A standalone tool processes a folder of .stp or .x_t files without opening each part individually — useful when a whole batch lands at once.
Adjusts to your shop. Material, stock allowance, toolpath and strategy preferences, tool library and parameter tables are all configurable, so the output increasingly resembles how your shop already works. The defaults are intended to be usable as shipped.
Where it fits, and where it doesn’t
Where it fits
3-axis milling to conventional tolerances: non-standard automation parts, fixtures and jigs, plates, brackets, covers, small parts, anything mostly made of pockets, steps, holes and threads. High-mix, low-volume work where the number of programs — not the difficulty of any single part — is what’s holding the shop back.
Where it doesn’t — and why
- 4-axis, 5-axis and mill-turn work. RockCAM holds a fixed tool axis. Continuous tool-vector control is a different problem, and it isn’t the problem this program solves.
- Free-form surfaces and mould work. Feature recognition is built around prismatic parts with defined faces.
- Turning. The part has to be a milled 3-axis part. Lathe work belongs elsewhere.
- Castings and forgings as stock. Stock is a rectangular block or a cylinder.
- Dedicated fixtures. Vice-type and clamp-plate setups are supported. With a dedicated fixture you keep or edit the operations yourself.
- 2D drawings on their own. RockCAM needs a solid model.
- Tolerance-critical work driven by the drawing. A 3D model carries no tolerances. You mark what matters before programming — finish holes, for example — or refine the operations against the drawing afterwards.
- Post-processing. RockCAM stops at NX operations. The post is yours, which is also why the output drops into the setups you already have.
If most of your work sits in that second list, RockCAM is the wrong tool for you, and we would rather say so now than sell you a licence you won’t use. Tell us what you run and we’ll tell you honestly whether this fits — and if it doesn’t, what typically does.
Who we are
Suzhou Tongshang Software Technology Co., Ltd. is a manufacturing software company based in Suzhou, China. We were founded in 2014 and have supplied production software to around 2,000 manufacturers, most of them small and mid-sized machine shops and factories.
Our main business is the software a shop runs on: ERP, MES, warehouse and equipment management. Working inside those shops made one bottleneck hard to ignore — the machines had capacity, the orders were there, and the constraint was a single person building operations by hand. RockCAM is the product that came out of it.
We hold more than 40 registered software copyrights and patents, and we’re certified as a Jiangsu High-Tech Enterprise. Our software ships in Chinese today, with fully translatable interfaces, and we already have customers in Southeast Asia, Japan and Europe.
We would rather you judge RockCAM on the parts it programs than on where the company is registered. That’s why the evaluation below is built around your work, not a demo part we chose.
How to evaluate it
Don’t take our word for it, and don’t judge it on a sample part we picked.
- Tell us what you run — two or three parts you actually machine, or simply describe them.
- We set it up against your work: your NX version, a tool library and parameters that match your machine, so the first run isn’t a default guess.
- Run it on your own part, side by side with how you do it today, and compare the operations. If it isn’t useful, you have lost an afternoon.
Technical summary
- Host application: Siemens NX 10 and later (10, 12, 2206 and 2406 series). A MasterCAM add-in is also available.
- Machining scope: 3-axis milling, conventional tolerances
- Output: native NX operations — post-processing stays with your own post
- Stock: rectangular block or cylinder
- Workholding handled: vice-type and clamp-plate setups
- Interface: English, fully translatable